On the heels of a historic inauguration, nobody needs to tell the men's basketball team that it's time for a change.
The Jumbos, who finished 1-8 against NESCAC competition last year, again got off to a bitter start in conference play, falling to both Williams and Middlebury by a combined score of 204-123 in away games on Friday and Saturday. Tufts, which drops to 7-8 overall with the losses, is one of three teams, along with Bates and Conn. College, to go winless in its first two NESCAC contests.
"[The losses were] obviously disappointing," junior Dave Beyel said. "Going into our first NESCAC games, it's not the way we wanted to start off. It was a big-time eye-opener for how we're going to have to come out for games in league play."
The Jumbos began both games well, keeping up with their opponents before letting up at the end of each half. On Saturday, Middlebury blew open a 12-12 tie with a 32-6 run to take a commanding 44-18 lead with 2:35 left in the first half. Although the Jumbos rebounded slightly at the end of the frame, the 46-26 halftime deficit was simply too much to overcome.
Tufts scored the first bucket of the second half to come within 18, but that would be as close as they would get. By the 15:27 mark, the Panthers had taken a 63-33 lead on a three-pointer from senior Ben Rudin, and with 5:09 left in the half, freshman Henry Butler sank two free throws to stretch the lead to 100-60. The game finished with a score of 108-64, the first time since February 2007 -- in another loss to Middlebury -- that the Jumbos allowed an opponent to eclipse the century mark.
Against the Ephs on Friday afternoon, the story was much the same. With Tufts down 25-19 at the 8:29 mark, Williams went on a 29-12 run to close the half, taking a 56-33 lead into the break. The Jumbos remained down by at least 20 points for the rest of the game, as the Ephs eventually took an 80-50 lead with 8:35 to play and surged to a 96-59 victory.
"The mental focus was just not there, other than for five minutes at the beginning of each game," junior co-captain Jon Pierce said. "Then we let up mentally and both teams went on runs early in the first half of games and we were already out of it. To go on that type of trip, both the distance and against two of the best teams in the conference, and put forth that kind of effort and lose by that kind of margin is extremely disappointing."
Pierce led all scorers in the Middlebury game with 23 points but was one of only six Jumbos to rattle the scoreboard. In contrast, 13 Panthers players scored, with four reaching double digits, led by freshman Ryan Sharry's 15 in 17 minutes of play. Against Williams, only junior Tom Selby and Beyel reached double digits for Tufts with 12 and 10 points respectively, while four Ephs achieved that mark, including junior Blake Schultz with a 24-point effort and freshman James Wang with an astounding 22 points in 19 minutes.
"Really, [the problem] was defense," Pierce said. "Against Williams we didn't rotate when we were in the zone. They were 7-for-7 from three on mostly uncontested jump shots. [Against] Middlebury, we simply didn't get back on defense. They scored at least 30 points on uncontested layups. That's just mental focus stuff.
"Offensively, we didn't play well either," Pierce continued. "Playing without [sophomore point guard Matt Galvin, who remains questionable with a hamstring injury] hurt us. We give Middlebury credit. They really focused on taking me out and making it harder for me to get the ball. We just have to find a way to be able to fight through that -- it's not the only time we're going to face schemes like that."
Tufts now has a chance to redeem itself with home contests against Colby and Bowdoin, both 10-4 overall. The Jumbos know that in order to have a chance at winning the conference, they cannot allow a relapse of what happened last weekend. "It's certainly a rude wakeup call," Pierce said. "I'm still confident in the guys that we have on this squad and still confident in myself. I know we've played extremely well; we've shown the capability to be a good team. That being said, these next three days of practice are really a turning point going into these home games.
"We need to be mentally tough enough as a team to be successful," Pierce continued. "If all 15 guys aren't on the same page mentally, we're going to be in for a long season. I'm not big on silver linings from losses, but everyone knows what will happen if we don't come out prepared this weekend. I don't think anybody wants to be embarrassed again."
